Person Record

Metadata

Name

Caruso, Barbara Ann

Other Names

Barbara (Caruso) Ball

Born

1937

Birthplace

Kincardine, Ontario

Deceased

Dec. 30, 2009

Deceased

Brantford, Ontario

Father

Salvatore Thomas "Tom" Caruso

Mother

Rosa Caruso

Spouse

Nelson Ball

Relationships

Siblings: Joan Caruso, Thomasina Merritt and Rosemary Eckert.
Barbara's parents, Rose & Tom Caruso, owned Caruso's Fruit Market in Kincardine for 53 years until 1972.

Education

Barbara Caruso graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1965.

Occupation

"Barbara Caruso was a visual artist who dedicated her life to painting, drawing and print making. She was a writer on art and the author of two volumes of memoirs." (Caruso)

Since 1966, Barbara mounted over twenty-five solo exhibitions in public galleries and in private and co-op galleries. She participated in numerous group shows including: in Montreal, The Empirical Presence (1991); in Woodstock Ontario and touring, Formalist Encounters (1986-87); at Harbourfront in Toronto, Stimulus '78 (1978) and Festival of Women and the Arts (1975); at XXI Olympiad Montreal and in Paris, France and London, England, Abstractions (1967-77); in Binghampton, N.Y., Festival of Canada (1971).

Her work is in both private and public collections in Canada and the U.S. She has received awards form the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council.

In a 1999 "Serial Works" essay, she wrote "My paintings are about colour, its energy and activity, its interaction and interdependence. My drawings are about the elements that constitute the work: line, direction, shape and surface. My work is abstract or non-objective, and it is rigorously planar."

She was the editor/designer/printer of Seripress (1972-1980), publishing visual and concrete poetry.

Places

Barbara was born in Kincardine. She lived and worked in Toronto until 1985 when she moved to Paris, Ontario with her husband Nelson Ball.

Sources

Sources:

(a) "Caruso" obituary, Bruce County Genealogical Society Surname Collection.

(b) Caruso, Barbara. "Wording the Silent Art." Toronto: The Mercury Press, 2001. Print., A2020.084.006.

(c) Caruso, Babara. "Serial Works: Paintings and Drawings by Barbara Caruso. An Essay by the Artist." https://www.artword.net/website/Gallery/Exhibitions/barbara_caruso_1999.htm. Accessed November 19, 2020.